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Hot Springs, NC 9-2012 report and pics

I took scenic route 209 (The Rattler) to get to the Hot Springs, NC hang. It took me over 3 hrs. to get there from Westminster, SC because the scenic route is not the quick route.

I set up on my site, #557, which was at the other end of the campground from the group site. The site was lovely, with at least four good hanging trees, but most of the trees were spoiled by poison ivy growing at their bases. On Friday, a bunch of us walked into town to shop at the outfitters and to eat dinner, followed by lollygagging around the fire and listening to Fishbone play the mandolin. According to Hogg Tyed the low temp on Friday was 57.

Saturday, some went hiking, some paddling and some went to the spa across the road. Rockdog69, Lazybee and his friend Chris and Chris' dog, with me bringing up the rear, hiked up to the top of Max Patch, which is a bald not far out of Hot Springs. Well, it isn't far when you find the right road, which we finally did, thanks to some directions from a local. I wasn't sure that I was going to make it the last ten feet, but after a rest, I finally got to the top. The view was spectacular! My husband, Gene (aka my sherpa), rode up to Hot Springs on his motorcycle while I was out trying to hike. He introduced himself and sat down and visited with people until I got back. I felt so bad because he had driven 3 hours and I wasn't even there! He had to head home soon after I got back because he didn't want to make too much of the drive in the dark, so he didn't even to get to eat with us.

Thanks to all of the vendors and members who donated the awesome gear, especially Snowcamper for the silnylon poncho, Smartoutdoors for the tarp keys, and treklightgear for the beer coozy which I won. Three cheers for all of the vendors and Loki!!! We had some great food after the raffle and settled in around the campfire. Resqsarge shared some fossils he found while diving on the coast and told some great stories about same. Spamburgler had us in tears doing a near perfect imitation of Karl. Hanging Burrito was trying to burn every last piece of wood he had and we had a raging fire. Around 9:30 hornets started flying everywhere and we figured out they were coming out of the wood that had been thrown into the fire. I decided it was a good time take a shower and go to sleep!

I slept in on Sunday morning and took my time breaking down. I saw a few people, but most had already left. So if I didn't see you Sunday morning, I enjoyed hanging with you and hope to again. Thanks to our hosts RF and HB and all of those who made this hang happen.

Sluggie's Pics

The set is relatively unedited because I wanted everyone to be able to see them before the end of the year. So, lots of similar pictures and maybe some that should have been deleted. Sometimes work isn't fun.